


After the Thunder

by raininshadows



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-14 10:32:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13588218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raininshadows/pseuds/raininshadows
Summary: After the new world, Rose and Dirk talk about before.





	After the Thunder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [song_of_staying](https://archiveofourown.org/users/song_of_staying/gifts).



> Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you like the fic!
> 
> Title inspired by T. S. Eliot's _The Waste Land_.

“So you’re my father,” Rose said, sitting down next to Dirk.

“I suppose, yeah,” Dirk said guardedly. “If you’re my mom.”

“Let’s go with that for now, then,” Rose said. “Certainly Dave seems to think of Roxy as his mother.”

“Why are you bringing it up?” Dirk asked. “It’s not like it matters that much now.”

Rose shrugged, turning to face him. “I used to wonder who my father was when I was little. Mom had told me I was adopted, but I didn’t wonder about my birth mother so much. I wondered about my father.”

“You weren’t alone like Roxy and I, were you?” Dirk asked. He’d figured that Dave’s group had lived in the same sort of environments Jake and Jane had, but after hearing about Jade growing up alone except for Becquerel, he figured it might be worthwhile to ask.

Rose almost laughed at that. “Oh, no. I didn’t get out much, but certainly there was a whole wide world outside my home, and I had Mom and Jaspers.” She paused, and then added “I didn’t appreciate that enough,” more quietly.

“What was it like?” Dirk asked. “Where you lived.”

Rose smiled. “Beautiful. My house was on top of a waterfall, and surrounded by a vast forest. I could go explore it whenever I wanted. And sometimes we could go down to New York City, which… we haven’t been able to replicate it, but it was incredible. A whole vast city that never slept, full of skyscrapers a thousand feet tall or more, with an immense variety of people. It was like the world condensed.”

Dirk nodded. “Hard to believe that turned into where Roxy lived,” he commented. 

Rose blinked, as if snapping out of something. “What?”

“Roxy lived where you did. Except when you were there it was this badass forest nature area, and when she was there it was just all interchangeable ocean.” Dirk shrugged. “The ice melted, and that’s what it did to the place.”

“That shouldn’t have been enough water,” Rose muttered. “Those mountains were a mile tall, there wasn’t enough ice in the world.” 

“It’s not like I know exactly what happened,” Dirk said. “Supposedly the ice melted and that’s what caused it.” 

“And where you lived — that was also interchangeable ocean?” Rose asked. 

Dirk nodded. “Just the ocean and me. Didn’t even have the carapaces like Roxy did.” 

“That’s less surprising,” Rose said. “The area Dave lives in was prone to flooding even in our time.”

“You were famous, you know,” Dirk said. “You and Dave. You were famous in our world. You were an author, and he was a movie director, and I don’t know how you met, but you were the great heroes of humanity.” 

Rose nodded. “Roxy told me,” she said quietly. “Talking about how she was trying to live up to me. I didn’t know what to tell her. That wasn’t me, any more than she was my mother. I’m not a hero. Your universe’s version of me might have been, but I’m not.”

“Everyone thinks like that,” Dirk said firmly. “But you’re a hero. The real you, the current you. You made a new world, even through everything the game put you through. That was all you. You were even a better hero than my version of you, because you succeeded.”

“I suppose,” Rose said, staring at the carpet. Her voice shook slightly.

“We all were, really,” Dirk continued. “And here’s the proof of it.” He gestured out the window. Their building was the tallest in the city by far, and it wasn’t even very tall, but from the top floor it afforded an excellent view of the city and the ocean in the distance. “The world we made, Rose.”

“You’re right,” she whispered, staring avidly at the city. “You’re right.”


End file.
